Device for shaping edges of shape steel

ABSTRACT

A DEVICE FOR EDGING SHAPE STEEL HAVING A WEB AND FLANGES, COMPRISING A PAIR OF ROLLS, A GUIDE MEMBER MEANS, AND A FIXED SUPPORTING MEANS FOR THE GUIDE MEMBER MEANS. THE GUIDE MEMBER MEANS HAS A CROSS SECTION AT A PLANE PASSING THE AXES OF THE ROLLS, AND THE CONFIGURATION OF THE CROSS SECTION OF THE GUIDE MEMBER MEANS IS COMPLEMENTARY WITH THE SHAPE OF THE INNER PERIPHERAL SURFACE OF EACH SHAPE STEEL BEING EDGED. BY CHANGING THE GUIDE MEMBER MEANS, DIFFERENT SHAPE STEELS, SUCH AS H-SHAPE, I-SHAPE, AND CHANNEL STEELS, OF VARIOUS DIMENSIONS CAN BE EASILY EDGED.

1971 TOMOMI MATSUM URO DEVICE FOR SHAPING EDGES OF SHAPE STEEL Filed Sept. 23, 1968 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS PR/Ol? ART TaMoMi MATJ'UMVAU yaw-7, r

Patented Mar. 2, 1971 DEVICE FOR SHAPING EDGES F SHAPE STEEL Tomomi Matsumuro, Kobe, Japan, assignor to Kawasaki Steel Corporation, Kobe, Japan Filed Sept. 23, 1968, Ser. No. 761,411 Claims priority, application Japan, Oct. 16, 1967, 42/ 66,179 Int. Cl. B21b 39/16 US. Cl. 72-227 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A device for edging shape steel having a web and flanges, comprising a pair of rolls, a guide member means, and a fixed supporting means for the guide member means. The guide member means has a cross section at a plane passing the axes of the rolls, and the configuration of the cross section of the guide member means is complementary with the shape of the inner peripheral surface of each shape steel being edged. By changing the guide member means, different shape steels, such as H-shape, I-shape, and channel steels, of various dimensions can be easily edged.

This invention relates to a device for shaping edges of shaped steel, more particularly to an improved device usable for shaping edges of H-shape, I-shape and channel steels of various sizes by simply replacing guide member means.

Rolled shape steel having a web and flanges, such as H-shape, I-shape, or channel steel, is usually shaped by a universal rolling mill, because special accurate work for achieving the desired sectional configuration, such as heavy reduction, is very diflicult to carry out by the socalled grooved roll.

With the known universal rolling mill, in order to roll shape steel of different sizes, at least a pair edger rolls for each size are necessary, respectively and laborious replacement of such edger rolls is required to change the size of the shape steel to be formed, because each known edger roll has an annular guide projection whose dimension correspond to those of the shape steel being edged. To keep the rolling mill always operable, a few spare edger rolls are necessary, and hence, two or three sets of edger rolls should be stored ready for each size. As a result of it, a great number of such edger rolls have to be stored and maintained in readily usable condition.

Moreover, in rolling small size shape steel, the rolled steel running out of the universal rolling mill tends to sway laterally with respect to the pass-line of each shape steel being edged, so that the flange of the rolled steel often intrudes between adjacent guide members to interrupt the satisfactory operation of the edger rolls. Accordingly, the efliciency of rolling process of small size shape steel is usually low, and the production cost of such shape steel is high. I

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obviate the aforesaid difficulties of the known edger rolls by providing an improved device to be used in the process of rolling shape steel.

According to the present invention, at least a pair of edger rolls are used, each of which does not have any annular guide projection, and a separate guide member means engageable with said rolls is used to guide each shape steel being edged. According to the present invention, different size shape steels having flanges of various widths can be edged by the same rolls by changing the guide member means. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a pair of guide members are detachably en gaged with the spool-like edger roll so as to insure the uniformity of the flange width being edged and to properly register the shape steel to the edger rolls.

The improvement according to the present invention is characterized by the use of a guide member means and edger rolls having no guide projection. The guide member means according to the invention is disposed adjacent to the edger rolls in such fashion that the guide member means has a cross section at a plane passing the axes of the edger rolls, and the configuration of the cross section is complementary with the inner fringe surface of the shape steel being edged. The edger roll can be selectively combined with the guide member means of different sizes.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a known device for rolling H-shape steel;

FIG. 2 is a schematic front elevation of a known edger roll for shaping edges of the H-shape steel;

FIG. 3 is a schematic front elevation of an edger roll, embodying the improvement according to the present invention;

FIG. 3a is a variant form of the roll of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a schematic front elevation of a guide member, shown as attached to the edger roll of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the guide member; and

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing an arrangement to roll channel sections.

Referring to FIG. 1, a known universal rolling mill, for forming H-shape steel, comprises a pair of horizontal rolls 4 and 5, each having a peripheral rolling surface 1 and side rolling surfaces 2, 3, and another pair of vertical rolls 7 and 8, located between the horizontal rolls 4 and 5, each having rolling surface 6 to cooperate with the side rolling surface 2 or 3. The peripheral rolling surfaces 1, 1 of the horizontal rolls 4 and 5 cooperate to form the web 9 of an H-shape steel W being worked. Flanges 10, 10 of the H-shape steel W are formed in the spaces between the side rolling surfaces 2, 3 of the horizontal rolls and rolling surfaces 6, 6 of the vertical rolls 7 and 8.

In order to properly finish the upper and lower edges of the flanges 10, 10 thus formed, the H-shape steel is then fed to a pair of edger rolls 11 and 12, which is shown in detail in FIG. 2. Each edger roll 11 or 12 has a guide projection 13, adapted to fit between the flanges 10, 10 of the H-shape steel being worked, for preventing lateral swaying of the steel W, and a pair of edging surfaces 14, 14. The edging surface 14 is so tapered that its diameter gradually increases as the edging surface 14 extends away from the guide projection 13. The distance between the edging surfaces 14, 14 of adjacent edger rolls 11 and 12 is set depending on the desired width of the flange 10.

With a known process of forming shape steels of different sizes, such as H-shape steels, it has been necessary to use different edger rolls 11 and 12 for each size of the shape steel. Thus, a great number of such edger rolls must be kept ready for use, if various sizes of the for each size of shape steel causes not only an increase in the cost of the forming process, but also additional man-powers to replace the edger rolls for processing each different shape steel. Moreover, flanges of the rolled steel W often tend to intrude between guide rolls 13, 13 to hamper the satisfactory operation of the edger rolls.

This invention is to obviate such difficulties of known process of forming edges of shape steels, by providing a novel edging device.

Referring to FIG. 3, a spool-like edger roll 15, usable in the device according to the present invention comprises a pair of tapered portions 16 whose diameter gradually increases as the portions 16 extend longitudinally away from the center of the edger roll. In the preferred embodiment, as shown in the figure, an annular groove 16' is formed at the central portion of the edger roll 15 between the tapered portions 16. A pair of such edger rolls 15, "15 are used to form the edges of a shape steel W by the tapered portions 16 thereof. The dimension of the flanged edges can be modified by adjusting the spacing of the cooperating edger rolls 15. The roll can instead have right cylindrical surface 16", as seen in FIG. 3a.

In a particular embodiment of the invention, as depicted in FIGS. 4 and 5, a guide member means 17 is provided for the pair of edger rolls 15 in order to guide the shape steel W being edged. The guide member 17 comprises an upper and a lower member which form a pair of guide portions 18, each connected to projected indexing portions 19. The guide portions 18 extend along the rolling direction and have a cross section complementary with the inner periphery of the shape steel W being fed in a direction as shown by the arrow D of FIG. 5. The projected indexing portions 19 are formed at the back of said guide portions so as to fit in said annular groove 16' of the edger roll 15, so that the guide member is properly registered to the edger rolls.

The tail end of the guide member means 17, extending in the rolling direction, is replaceably mounted on one or more of support levers 20 secured to housing (not shown) of the rolling mill.

In the particular embodiment for rolling H-shape or I-shape steel, as shown in FIG. 5, a support lever 20' is integrally formed with the upper member of the guide member means 17, which support lever 20' is journalled by a suitable bearing means secured to the housing. Accord ingly, a counterweight 21, formed integrally with the upper member of the guide member means 17 at the side opposite to the guiding and indexing portions thereof, acts to ensure proper engagement between the projected indexing portion 19 and the annular groove 16'. Thus, the guide member means 17 can be easily attached to the edger rolls 15.

For achieving operative engagement between the edger rolls 15 and the guide member means 17, it is also possible to form an arcuate ridge on each edger roll 15 while forming annular recesses on the guide member means 17 to receive the arcuate ridge, so that the guide member means can be indexed by the engagement between the arcuate ridge and the annular recess. In addition to the aforesaid counterweight 21 and the weight of the guide member means 17 itself, suitable springs or the like can be used to insure satisfactory engagement between the guide member means and the edger rolls.

The edging device according to the present invention has been described by taking an example of shaping an H-shape steel, but the application of the device is not limited to such shape steel alone. For instance, in order to roll I-shape steel, the spacing between the cooperating edger rolls 15 can be reduced, so as to edge the flange of smaller width.

To roll channel steel, one edger roll 15 is used, in conjunction with a smooth cylindrical roll 22, as seen in FIG. 6. If desired, guide member means consisting of a single member can be used in conjunction with the edger roll.

In any case, the shape steel leaving the rolling mill can be conveniently fed to the edger rolls by the guide portion 18 of the uide member means 17 for edging the flange at the desired dimension. Especially, in rolling small size shape steel, even if the steel being rolled is swayed laterally to some extent, correct edging operation is ensured by steady feeding by means of the guide member means 17. Thus, the chance of failure of rolling operation due to intrusion of the flange into guide members, which have been ex erienced heretofore, can be eliminated completely.

As described in the foregoing, according to the present invention, shape steel of different sizes can be rolled simply by changing the guide member means 17 alone. Thus, it becomes unnecessary to replace the edger rolls 15 for each size of shape steel to be formed. Accordingly, the working time necessary for the replacement of the edger rolls can be saved. Since a pair of edger rolls can be used, in common, for rolling shape steel of practically all the sizes, storage and maintenance thereof are greatly simplified. Furthermore, the wear of the edger roll is uniform throughout the entire span of the edging surface without causing any localized heavy abrasion, so that the durability of such edger rolls is greatly improved. Thus, the cost of rolling operation can be considerably reduced.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for shaping the edges of a steel shape hav- 7 ing a web and flanges, comprising a pair of rolls, re-

placeable guide means for guiding the shape between the rolls, and fixed supporting means for said guide means, said guide means being shaped to fit into the shape between the web and flanges thereof and disposed so as to intersect a plane containing the roll axes, at least one of said rolls being a spool-like roll having a minimum diameter at the longitudinal center thereof and a pair of tapered portions, symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal center of the roll, the diameter of said tapered portions being the largest at either end of the roll and diminishing gradually as the tapered portion extends toward the center of the roll.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said rolls is a spool-like roll having a maximum diameter at the longitudinal center point thereof and a pair of tapered portions, symmetrical with respect to the longitudinal center point of the roll, the diameter of said tapered portion decreasing gradually as the tapered portion extends toward the center of the roll.

3-. A device according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said rolls has an annular groove bored along the peripheral surface thereof at right angles with the axis of the roll, and said guide means has a projection to fit in said annular groove of the roll.

4. A device for shaping the edges of a steel shape having a web and flanges, comprising a pair of rolls, replaceable guide means for guiding the shape between the rolls, and fixed supporting means for said guide means, said guide means being shaped to fit into the shape between the web and flanges thereof and disposed so as to intersect a plane containing the roll axes, said guide means comprising an upper guide member engageable with an upper roll of said pair of rolls and a lower guide member engageable with the other one of said rolls, said upper guide member being pivotally supported by said fixed supporting means with one end operatively engaged with said upper roll and the opposite end acting as a counterweight for urging said end toward said upper roll.

5. A device for shaping the edges of a steel shape having a web and flanges, comprising a pair of rolls, replaceable guide means for guiding the shape between the rolls, and fixed supporting means for said guide means, said guide means being shaped to fit into the shape between the web and flanges thereof and disposed so as to intersect a plane containing the roll axes, one of said pair of rolls having a right cylindrical surface, and said guide means comprising a guide member engage- 5 6 able with the other one of said rolls, so as to edge a References Cited channel ShaPe- UNITED STATES PATENTS 6. A device for shaping the edges of a steel shape having a Web and flanges, comprising a pair of rolls, re- 20401979 5/1936 Crozier et a1 72*227 placeable guide means for guiding the shape between the 2791139 5/1957 Bostock 72 227 5 3,438,236 4/1969 Ogle et al. 72-250 rolls, and fixed supporting means for said guide means, said guide means being shaped to fit into the shape between the web and flanges thereof and disposed so as to MILTON MEHR Pnmary Exammer intersect a plane containing the roll axes, each said roll US. Cl. X.R. having a right cylindrical surface. 10 72-250 

